Advantages of Using Tempered Glass for Your Glass Shower Doors

Posted Date: May 13, 2020

In search of tenacious materials for your glass shower doors or stalls? If yes, then look no further than tempered glass! Tempered or toughened glass is a special kind of safety glass that does not shatter into jagged shards. Instead, it breaks into blunt pebble-like pieces that are harmless and incapable of causing serious injuries. This feature makes tempered glass a popular choice for varied applications, both at homes and offices. Be it shower stalls, living room partitions, oven doors, etc. tempered glass provides enhanced structural strength and safety to all. Are you wondering what makes tempered glass so strong?

The Science behind Tempered Glass

Tempered glass is manufactured by uniformly heating panes of standard annealed glass to 700°C inside a furnace or an industrial oven and immediately cooling it after. Doing this takes the glass pane beyond its transmission temperature, thus softening it. As a result, the outer layer of the glass pane cools far more rapidly while the inner layer remains hot. This process alters the glass pane’s physical characteristics and causes “center tension”. This process is called heat or thermal tempering, and it makes a standard annealed glass pane stronger.

A tempered pane of glass is at least four to five times stronger than annealed glass and can withstand temperature differentials and harsh weather conditions well. However, tempered glass cannot be cut or drilled after it has undergone heat tempering. Therefore, annealed glass panes are cut to size or bent into the desired shape before thermal tempering. After the glass pane undergoes the heat treatment, it cannot be re-worked upon.

Benefits of Using Tempered Glass for Your Glass Shower Doors and Stalls

Tempered glass offers a great deal of advancement over float or annealed glass panes, especially when it comes to designing glass shower doors. A shower stall withstands hot splashes of water frequently, which is why tempered glass is ideal here. Listed below are the top five benefits of choosing tempered glass for your glass shower doors.

Stellar Strength and Safety

The showering area inside your bathroom is a slippery place. Bathroom accidents are not uncommon, with most of them taking place due to someone slipping on water residue after taking a shower. Therefore, you need a glazing option that is safe and won’t shatter upon impact.

Firstly, tempered glass is durable and does not break easily upon impact. Secondly, in the unfortunate event of it breaking, the person standing next to it won’t get hurt as tempered glass shards are blunt. Toughened safety glass shatters evenly and crumbles into small pieces no matter how harsh the impact. This feature makes it extremely safe for use in glass shower doors.

Strong Resistance to Heat and Moisture

As mentioned earlier, bathrooms are hot and humid places that retain moisture throughout the day. Such conditions demand a material that resists heat and humidity and still maintains its finish year after year. Annealed or float glass panes crack and shatter if exposed to such situations for a prolonged period.

Tempered glass, on the other hand, has high endurance for hot water and moisture. These panes make for great glass shower doors without losing their sheen or asking for too much maintenance. Also, no point in installing standard glass shower doors if you have children in the house as they are more accident-prone than adults.

Stays Scratch Proof even after Prolonged Usage

Bathrooms generally have a high frequency of usage, albeit for a short period. Ordinary glassshower doors and stalls cannot resist scratches for too long. But, tempered glass effectively resists scratches or any other kind of material damage that may occur from every day wear-and-tear.

The scratch-resistant quality of tempered glass or toughened glass not only reduces the possibility of scratches but also keeps it looking cleaner for years on end.

Easy to Maintain

Since the bottom of glass shower doors stays moist for most part of the day, the chances of them catching mildew are very high. Mildew or mould that looks like black spots at the bottom of shower stalls take away from the beauty of glass.

You can get rid of tempered glass mildew with the help of vinegar. How? Fill up a spray bottle with vinegar and spray it on the affected area of the glass shower door or stall. Could you leave it to air-dry for a few minutes? Then, wet a clean sponge with some more vinegar and wipe the tempered glass surface clean. Now use a soft cloth and wipe the pane dry.

Design Versatility

A tempered glass shower door can be bent into any dimension, thus making it highly customisable. It is also available in a host of patterns and designs that lend aesthetic appeal to shower enclosures. Be it a shower door or a stall, tempered glass is sure to suit your bathroom’s unique style.

You can choose from a range of frosted, etched, stained, engraved, or clear tempered glass panes for designing your shower stalls.

The Bottom Line

It is as clear as day that tempered glass for shower stalls has many legit advantages. If you are looking for tempered glass shower doors or stalls, give AIS Glasxperts a shot! Our high-quality customised tempered glass panes are capable of withstanding extreme temperatures and do not break easily upon impact. We boast a team of experts that offers help every step of the way, from selecting to installing to after-sales support.